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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

2014 is my new, digital-download only, solo, instrumental piano music release which brings you up to date with my musical mind. A lot has happened in the past year since the release of Black & White Then Back. Devotion to the iconic Baltimore prog/folk/jazz/pop/rock band OHO has exerted a significantly positive effect upon me and my music in addition to adding perspective and richness to my life. The reconnecting with these and other good folks from my past, both musicians and non-musicians, has brought additional spice to my thoughts, reflections and philosophies and contributes to my continuing growth and evolution.

What more appropriate name for such a musical collection than 2014?

2014 will be available through digital distribution only at http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak April 8, 2014

What's being and what's been said . . .
". . . From the first note we are swept off our feet by a sultry sound of tantalizing notes and dashing fingers. The album’s mood is kept consistent throughout all tracks. The music engulfs you and the notes just relax your body. . . " (Kyzer Davis of http://www.bracketandbracket.com)

". . . One can hear little snippets of this and that running throughout his work, just enough to put you in the mind of a long forgotten favorite before he turns it inside out or upside down . . ." (Joe Hartlaub, http://www.music-reviewer.com/)

". . . He tries to play every note on the keyboard a few times, but puts special emphasis on the ones in the middle, as they wear out fastest… While running his tests, he channels Erroll Garner and sometimes Thelonious Monk, and plays himself into corners that you just don't think he’s going to get out of – but, wait – a quick wriggle and there he is gliding across the open floor… " (Rod Deacey, Board Member of the Frederick Acoustic Musicians Enterprise (FAME), Musician, Performer, Writer, Poet, Organizer, Emcee, Bluesman)

Catch a wave and ride
Cars and motorbikes
Bikini babes in the sand
Vibin' to rockin' bands
Ocean City

From Memorial to Labor Day
We beckon you to play
To a boardwalk beat
Miles and miles of beach
Your memories to take
Currents dance and sway
leave your footprints in the sand

Fireworks at night
Give your love a kiss
Sail and fish the sea
Here life is a beach
in Ocean City

Now is the time that's right
For you only live once
Time does drag when it's all work and no fun
The ocean gateway calls you
Sport your shorts and shades
It's so divine to dine at life's buffet
It's almost heaven and
There's so much more we can say

Catch a wave and ride
Cool cars and motorbikes
Bikinis on the sand
Dance to rockin' bands
Ocean City

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Representation is the use of signs that stand in for and take the place of something else. It is through representation that people organize the world and reality through the act of naming its elements. Signs are arranged in order to form semantic constructions and express relations. For many philosophers, both ancient and modern, man is regarded as the "representational animal" or homo symbolicum, the creature whose distinct character is the creation and the manipulation of signs – things that "stand for" or "take the place of" something else.

"God” is a human word but does point to something that is real; a presence, something into which we are able to live, not just an idol constructed in our own image. The word “God” points to something that human language can never encompass. We should strive to bear witness to our beliefs by the way we live. Part of loving another person is to give them the freedom to process truth and reality in their own personal way and time. The journey into the mystery of God is a life’s work. The only thing that is ultimately destructive is when we begin to believe that we have arrived and that now we possess the ultimate and final truth.
(thanks to http://johnshelbyspong.com and http://www.wikipedia.com and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representation_%28arts%29)

Saturday, December 28, 2013

If I evaluated the level of my success in enumerable sales of physical items alone, I, with a multitude of others, could easily and realistically be deemed failures. But there is so much more to life. Viewing my own objectively, I am happy to report that I do not view it as such. Upon the realization many years ago that my own art could reasonably and truly entertain my own self with a sufficient level of emotional content and technical ability was to attain a certain, albeit modest, level of success in and of itself. That, combined with the good fortune and personal contentment my personal life has awarded me, give me the distinct impression and definite opinion that, with all modesty and humility, I am a success. Unfortunately, others have not experienced the favorable circumstances nor made the necessary choices to enable themselves to feel quite the same way. . .

In 1940, F. Scott Fitzgerald suffered a third and final heart attack, and died believing his work forgotten. In the last year of his life, he wrote his daughter, "I wish now I'd never relaxed or looked back—but said at the end of The Great Gatsby: I've found my line—from now on this comes first. This is my immediate duty - without this I am nothing." By his own admission, Fitzgerald viewed himself as a failure, and only 25,000 copies were sold at the time of his death. His obituary in The New York Times mentioned Gatsby as evidence of great potential that was never reached. However, a strong appreciation for the book had developed in underground circles; future writers Edward Newhouse and Budd Schulberg were deeply affected by it and John O'Hara showed the book's influence. The republication of Gatsby in Edmund Wilson's edition of The Last Tycoon in 1941 produced an outburst of comment, with the general consensus expressing the sentiment that the book was an enduring work of fiction.

By 1930, Scott was an alcoholic and Zelda had suffered the first of her multiple breakdowns, fighting her way back to sanity over 15 months in a Swiss clinic. After Zelda’s release in September 1931, the couple and Scottie, then 10, returned to the United States, but five months later, Zelda fell apart again. When Fitzgerald wrote to H. L. Mencken for advice, the latter suggested the Phipps Clinic at Johns Hopkins, in Baltimore, at that time the nation’s premier institution for the treatment of the mentally ill. Phipps director Adolf Meyer advocated a scientific approach to psychiatry but believed that psychogenetic factors, not physical disease, caused most mental illness. He thought that people became mentally ill “by actually living in ways that put their mind and entire organism and its activity in jeopardy.” The Fitzgeralds— whose marriage Meyer diagnosed as a “folie a deux”— seemed a living embodiment of his theories, which perhaps explains why they both detested him. (thanks to both http://www.baltimorestyle.com/index.php/style/baltimore/baltimore_f_scott_fitzgerald_in_baltimore/#sthash.cD1aikhO.dpuf and http://www.wikipedia.com)

Friday, December 27, 2013

(from wikipedia.com)
The pedal steel guitar is a musical instrument that produces sound by strings vibrating over a magnetic pickup. The instrument has reference lines where frets would be, but no actual frets—the player changes the pitch of one or more strings by sliding a metal bar (a steel) from one position to another while plucking the strings with the other hand, or vibrating them with a mechanical device. Pedal steels may have one or two "necks" that typically have 10 strings each, but may have as many as 14.

Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal" steel guitar. The steel in the name comes from the metal tone bar, which is called a steel.

The instrument is horizontal, with strings that face up, and typically is plucked with a thumb pick and fingers, or two or three fingerpicks. The pedals are mounted on a cross bar below the body and the knee levers extend from the bottom of the guitar's body and stretch or slacken the strings to change pitch as the guitar is played. The action of the pedals may either be fixed, or may be configurable by the player to select which strings the pedals affect. The pedal steel, with its smooth portamenti, bending chords and complex riffs, is one of the most recognizable and characteristic instruments of American country music.

While there are some fairly standard pedal assignments, many advanced players devise their own setups, called copedents. The range of copedents that can be set up varies considerably from guitar to guitar. Aftermarket modifications to make additional copedents possible are common.

The pedal steel evolved from the console steel guitar and lap steel guitar. Like the console steel, a pedal steel may have multiple necks, but the pedals make even a single-neck pedal steel a far more versatile instrument than any multiple-neck console steel.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

(from American Assassination; The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone by Four Arrows & Jim Fetzer)
1947: President Truman sends military aid to Greece to support right-wing forces fighting communist rebels.

1952:
In Iran, The CIA overthrows democratically elected Mossadegh in a
military coup after he threatened to nationalize British oil and
replaces him with a dictator, the Shah of Iran, whose secret police are
brutal and kill many.

1954: In Guatemala, CIA
overthrows democratically elected Jacob Arbenz in a military coup.
Arbenz has threatened to nationalize the Rockefeller-owned Fruit Company
in which CIA DIrector Allen Dulles owns stock. Arbenz is replaced with
a series of right-wing dictators whose brutal policies will kill over
100,000 Guatemalans.

1954-58: CIA attempts to overthrow the communist government of North Vietnam.

1957-74:
CIA carries out almost one coup per year to nullify Laosian democratic
elections. CIA defeats result by U.S. dropping more bombs than it did
in WWII. A quarter of all Laotians become refugees.

1958:
U.S. military helps put into place Duvalier as dictator of Haiti. His
police will kill more than 100,000 and the U.S. does not protest their
dismal human rights record.

1963: CIA overthrows
democratically elected President Juan Bosch in a military coup in the
Dominican Republic, and installs a repressive, right-wing junta. The
same thing happens in Ecuador.

1964: In Brazil, a
CIA-backed military coup overthrows the democratically elected
government of Joao Goulart. The junta that replaces it will become among
the most bloodthirsty in history.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

. . . Not a day of my life goes by without music. Music, an integral part of my world, is (paraphrasing Zappa) food.

My piano must be played daily, though there are unfortunately some exceptions, for my digital therapy as well as to keep my musical imagination healthy. Music is always audible during the evening meal at our house, exceptions to this being even MORE rare than above, be it jazz, classical, modern rock, (sorry, the available wealth of genre names are beyond me) country, R&B/soul, vocal, instrumental, experimental and traditional. Some personal musical assignment, be it practicing my part in a song for Oho, revisiting an old composition of my own or working on a new idea, is always high on my agenda. And I am always, after many years of conditioning, aware of music around me whether it be a song someone was humming in the office, a new song on the radio, incidental music between news stories on NPR or reference to a song during a conversation- it's there.

It is ever-present and just as much a part of me as. . . my right hand.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

(from(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Hazare)
Kisan Baburao "Anna" Hazare is an Indian social activist who led movements to promote rural development, increase government transparency, and investigate and punish official corruption. In addition to organising and encouraging grassroots movements, Hazare frequently conducted hunger strikes to further his causes—a tactic reminiscent, to many, of the work of Mohandas K. Gandhi.

Hazare also contributed to the development and structuring of Ralegan Siddhi, a village in Parner taluka of Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, India. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan—the third-highest civilian award—by the Government of India in 1992 for his efforts in establishing this village as a model for others.

Anna Hazare started an indefinite hunger strike on 5 April 2011 to exert pressure on the Indian government to enact a stringent anti-corruption law, The Lokpal Bill, 2011 as envisaged in the Jan Lokpal Bill, for the institution of an ombudsman with the power to deal with corruption in public places. The fast led to nation-wide protests in support. The fast ended on 9 April 2011, a day after the government accepted Hazare's demands. The government issued a gazette notification on the formation of a joint committee, consisting of government and civil society representatives, to draft the legislation.

For the year 2011 Foreign Policy magazine named him among top 100 global thinkers. Also in 2011 Anna was ranked as the most influential person in Mumbai by a national daily newspaper. He has faced criticism for his authoritarian views on justice, including death as punishment for corrupt public officials and his alleged support for forced vasectomies as a method of family planning.

In 1991 Hazare launched the Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Aandolan (BVJA, People's Movement against Corruption), a popular movement to fight against corruption in Ralegaon Siddhi. In the same year he protested against the collusion between 40 forest officials and timber merchants. This protest resulted in the transfer and suspension of these officials.